Air conditioning methods and apparatus for cooling an entire building, home, or other structure are well known. Also, portable air conditoners, which can be mounted in a window or sleeve through a wall, are commonly used in many parts of the world to cool a single room. Such portable air conditioners, if large enough, may also be used to cool a number of rooms.
Such conventional air conditioning methods and apparatus necessarily cool an entire volume defined within the confines of the room or building that is being cooled. Thus, even regions in the room or building that are not normally occupied by people are cooled. For example, inaccessible regions beneath and behind furniture or near the ceiling are cooled when the room is cooled. The inventor of the present invention has discovered that, from the standpoint of human environmental comfort (the basic objective of these conventional types of air conditioning systems), the cooling of such regions is wasteful and unnecessary.
Over the last decade, energy costs have risen dramatically in the United States of America and in many other countries around the world. As a result, the operation of such conventional air conditioning systems has become relatively much more expensive than it was a decade ago. For example, in many parts of the United States of America, it is not uncommon for the operation of an electric air conditioning system in a small three room apartment to double or triple the monthly electric power utility bill for that apartment in the hot summer months.
The inventor of the present invention has recognized the above-described disadvantages with conventional air conditioning systems. The inventor has discovered that operating costs can be reduced if the cooling of unoccupied portions of a room is eliminated.
It would be advantageous to provide a method and apparatus for cooling a local environment or selected region within a room in such a manner as to reduce the operating cost to only a small fraction of the operating cost for conventional air conditioning systems. Further, it would beneficial if such an improved method could be effected with a relatively small, portable apparatus that (1) could be used in a variety of locations and (2) could be readily transported and set up at a selected location. Also, it would advantageous if such an apparatus was relatively inexpensive, easy to operate, compact, generally service-free, and operable on common household electric current (e.g., 15 amperes at 115 volts alternating current that is common throughout the United States of America).